1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal spacer to be attached to a circumference of an electric wire connected to a terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known a charge connector or a charge inlet device for charging a battery installed in a vehicle such as an electric vehicle (EV) or a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-244590 (FIG. 2 to FIG. 4)). Such a charge connector or charge inlet device may use a terminal spacer for positioning and fixing a terminal to a housing. An example of the terminal spacer will be described below with reference to FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, a terminal spacer 100 is formed into a cylindrical shape. The terminal spacer 100 is provided with a slit 110 (a gap) extending across the entire length in the axial direction of the cylindrical shape thereof. The slit 110 is formed to have a uniform opening width along the entire length.
The terminal spacer 100 is attached to an end portion of an electric wire (not shown in the figure) in a manner such that the end portion of the electric wire is connected to an electric wire connecting portion of a terminal and is then inserted into the terminal spacer 100 from the slit 110 so that the electric wire connecting portion of the terminal is partly covered with the terminal spacer 100. The terminal spacer 100 facilitates the attachment operation since the electric wire can be attached with the terminal spacer 100 after the connection of the electric wire to the terminal.
However, the terminal spacer 100 may easily come off the end portion of the electric wire and the electric wire connecting portion of the terminal through the slit 110 because of the opening thereof regardless of whether the terminal spacer 100 is elastically deformed. If the opening width of the slit 110 is decreased or the slit 110 is formed with almost no opening in order to prevent the terminal spacer 100 from easily coming off the end portion of the electric wire and the electric wire connecting portion of the terminal, the operation performance of attaching the terminal spacer 100 to the end portion of the electric wire deteriorates.